Steve Webb: When you reject the essentials, you cannot honestly
still be a Christian.
Hi there, this is the Lifespring! One Year Bible
coming to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since
2004. I'm your OG Godcaster. Steve Webb. This is the daily
podcast where we're reading through the entire Bible in a
year. How are you? It's Psalms Wednesday, and we'll read
chapters 66 through 68. Before reading each chapter, I'll give
you a short introduction. I'm calling this episode essentials.
Being Wednesday, we'll have a time for prayer requests, and I
have a new segment on today's show as well. The title of
today's show is a hint. Let's get started with a prayer. Our
heavenly Father, how are we thank you for this time. I thank
You, Lord, for the Psalms. I thank You, Lord for the praises
that it teaches us how to do and I asked you Lord today to just
open our hearts, open our eyes and teach us I pray this in
Jesus name. Amen. Are you ready? Let's begin.
The title of Psalm 66 is for the choir director of song, a psalm.
This is the first psalm since Psalm 50 That is not credited to
David, Daniel Cresswell, who lived from 1776 to 1844, and was
a clergyman and mathematician wrote of Psalm 66. This Psalm is
said to be recited on Easter Day by the Greek church. It is
described in the Greek Bible as a Psalm of the resurrection, and
may be understood to refer in a prophetic sense to the
regeneration of the world through the conversion of the
Gentiles.
Psalms chapter 66. Shout happily to God all the earth, make music
to praise the glory of his name, make his praise glorious, say to
God, how awe inspiring are your deeds. Your power is so great
that your enemies will cringe in front of you. The whole earth
will worship you. It will make music to praise you. It will
make music to praise your name. C'est la vie. Come and see what
God has done his awe inspiring deeds for Adam's descendants. He
turned the sea into dry land, they crossed the river on foot.
We rejoiced because of what he did there. He rules forever with
his might. His eyes watch the nation's rebels will not be able
to oppose him. Selah. Thank our God you nations make the sound
of his praise heard. He has kept us alive and has not allowed us
to fall. You have tested us, oh God, you have refined us in the
same way silver as refined. You have trapped us in a net. You
have laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our
heads. We went through fire and water, but then you brought us
out and refreshed us. I will come into your temple with burnt
offerings. I will keep my vows to you. The vows made by my lips
and spoken by my own mouth when I was in trouble. I will offer
you a sacrifice of fattened livestock for burnt offerings
with the smoke from rams, I will offer cattle and goats Sayla.
Come and listen all who fear God and I will tell you what he has
done for me. With my mouth, I cried out to him. High praise
was on my tongue. If I had thought about doing anything
sinful, the Lord would not have listened to me. But God has
heard me he has paid attention to my prayer. Thanks be to God
who has not rejected my prayer or taken away his mercy from me.
The title of Psalm 67 is to the chief musician on stringed
instruments, a psalm, a song. Interestingly, Martin Luther
wrote an extensive five volume commentary on the Psalms, yet he
wrote nothing on this one. It is short and the writers desire is
to follow God's way to see salvation from God, and for all
the earth to praise Him.
Psalms chapter 67. May God show loving kindness toward us and
bring good to us? May he make his face shine upon us? May your
way be known on the earth, and you're saving power among all
nations? May the people praise you, oh, God, may all the people
praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you
will be fair when you judge the people and rule the nations of
the earth. May the people praise you Oh God, may all the people
praise you. The Earth has given its fruit. God, our God will
bring good to us. God will bring good to us and all the ends of
the earth will FEAR Him.
The title of Psalm 68 is for the choir director of song by David
a song. Many commentators think that Psalm 68 is related into a
time when the Ark of the Covenant came into Jerusalem. As
we read about in the Second Samuel chapter six. It
celebrates the coming of the ark in in God's faithfulness in
giving victory to Israel over their enemies in thereby making
it possible for the Ark to come to Jerusalem. This is a
difficult song. Commentator Adam Clarke wrote, I know not how to
undertake a comment on this song. It is the most difficult
in the whole Psalter.
Psalms chapter 68. God will arise his enemies will be
scattered. Those who hate him will flee from him. blow them
away like smoke. Let wicked people melt in God's presence
like wax next to a fire but let righteous people rejoice. Let
them celebrate in God's presence. Let them overflow with
joy. sing to God, make music to praise his name. Make a highway
for him to ride through the deserts. The Lord is his name,
celebrate His presence. The God who is in His holy place is the
father of the fatherless and the defender of widows. God places
lonely people in families, he leads prisoners out of prison
into productive lives. But rebellious people must live in
an unproductive land. Oh God when you went in front of your
people, when you marched through the desert Sayla the earthquake
and the sky poured in the presence of the god of Sinai in
the presence of the God of Israel. You watered the land
with plenty of rain. Oh god, you refreshed it when your land was
exhausted. Your flock settled there, out of your goodness, oh
God, you provided for oppressed people. The Lord gives
instructions. The women who announced the good news are a
large army. They say the kings of the armies flee, they run
away. The women who remained at home will divide the goods.
Though you stayed among the sheep pins, you will be like the
wings of a dove covered with silver, its feathers with yellow
gold. Meanwhile, the Almighty was still scattering kings,
they're like snow falling on Mount Zalman. The mountain of
Batian is the mountain of God. The mountain of Batian is the
mountain with many peaks. Why do you look with envy you mountains
with many peaks at the mountain where God has chosen to live?
Certainly the Lord will live there forever. The chariots of
God are 20,000 in number 1000s upon 1000s. The Lord is among
them. The God of Sinai is in His holy place. You went to the
highest place, you took prisoners captive, you receive
gifts from people, even from rebellious people, so that the
Lord God may live there. Thanks be to the Lord who daily carries
our burdens forests. God is our salvation, Save Our God is the
God of victories. The Almighty Lord is our escape from death.
Certainly, God will crush the heads of his enemies and destroy
even the hair on the heads of those who continue to be guilty.
The Lord said, I will bring them back from vacation, I will bring
them back from the depths of the sea so that you my people may
bathe your feet in blood, and the tongues of your dogs may
lick the blood of your enemies. Your festival processions Oh God
can be seen by everyone. They are the processions for my God,
my king into the holy place. The singers are in front, the
musicians are behind them. The young women beating tambourines
are between them. Thank God the Lord, the source of Israel with
the choirs. Benjamin The youngest is leading them. Next,
the leaders of Judah with their noisy crowds, then the leaders
of Zebulun then the leaders of Naphtali. Your God is decided
you will be strong. Display your strength oh god as you have for
us before. Kings will bring you gifts because of your temple
high above Jerusalem, threatened the beast who is among the
cattails, the herd of bulls with the calves of the nation's until
it humbles itself with pieces of silver. Scattered the people who
find joy in war, Ambassadors will come from Egypt, Sudan will
stretch out its hands to God in prayer. You kingdoms of the
world sing to God, make music to praise the Lord Sayla God rides
through the ancient heaven, the highest heaven. Listen, he makes
his voice heard his powerful voice acknowledged the power of
God. His Majesty is over Israel and His power is in the skies.
God, the God of Israel is all inspiring in his holy place. He
gives strength and power to his people. Thanks be to God.
Psalm 66 opens with a call All to all the earth to praise God
because of his awesome in the truest sense of the word all
inspiring, is awesome deeds. It even gives a sample of what
should be said to God, how are inspiring are your deeds, your
power is so great that your enemies will cringe in front of
you, the whole earth will worship you. It will make music
to praise you, it will make music to praise your name. Well,
of course, all of this is true. God is worthy of the praise of
the whole world. And most of this Psalms gives various
reasons to give him worship. And I can hardly help but say yes
and amen as I read them. But the last five verses of chapter 66
are a bit different. Let me read it to you again. Come and listen
all who fear God and I will tell you what he has done for me.
With my mouth, I cried out to him high praise was on my
tongue. If I had thought about doing anything sinful, the Lord
would not have listened to me. But God has heard me he has paid
attention to my prayer. Thanks be to God who has not rejected
my prayer or taken away his mercy from me. Did you notice
where the Psalm was said there if I had thought about doing
anything sinful, the Lord would not have listened to me. And he
was right. Have you ever thought about the fact that God is not
obligated to listen to every prayer? Proverbs 28 Nine says,
He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his
prayer is an abomination. In Job when speaking of the wicked says
in Job 27 Nine, will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon
him? Of course, the implied answer to that is No, God will
not hear his cry. Sometimes God will listen to the prayer of an
unbeliever if the prayer is in alignment with his will. And
there are many examples of this in the Bible. But an unbeliever
should have no expectation that God will hear them. But now it's
different for Christians. Listen to Hebrews four verses 14
through 16. Since then, we have a great high priest who has
passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who in every
respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us
then with confidence, draw nearer to the throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. And beloved, there are many other promises for
believers concerning prayers. It's because of God's great
mercy and grace that He invites us to come to Him in prayer.
Yes, we can come to him in confidence. But we should also
come with reverence and awe knowing that Jesus paid a
tremendous price to bring that mercy and grace to us. What are
your thoughts? You have any questions? Any comments, call
the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 19517328511. You can also
comment via boostagram or go to comment.lifespringmedia.com.
Tomorrow, we'll be poetry Thursday, and our reading will
be proverbs two and three.
Have a donation today from Derek Shack, who said in $20 today,
thank you, Derek, God bless you. I appreciate your support. Very
much Lifespringmedia.com slash support.
I'm calling this new segment of the show "Essentials." And in a
way I'm surprised it's never occurred to me to do this kind
of thing before. As you know, I began podcasting in 2004, after
a time of prayer in which I was praising God for his many
blessings. And I asked him if there's anything more I could do
for him. And his answer was an almost audible proclaim My name.
You can read more about that at Steve dot Lifespringmedia.com If
you're interested. The point is I've been doing this for a long
time. I guess I haven't thought of doing this because it wasn't
time yet. But God laid this on my heart this past week when I
was listening to one of my favorite podcasts. The host name
is Frank Turek and the name of the podcast is I don't have
enough faith to be an atheist. The show I highly recommend By
the way, it's a show on apologetics. And if you don't
know apologetics has nothing to do with apologizing. But instead
it's the defending of the faith by means of systematically
arguing for the veracity of our beliefs. It's being able to give
solid reasons for believing. And one thing that's happening in
the church today that I find very disturbing is that many
people are leaving the faith, especially young people. As
Frank Turek says in the intro to his podcast, they don't think
Christianity is true. They're tucked out of it. You know why
they're tucked out of it? Because they've never been
tucked into it. And as a parent of one of these who have left
the faith, this hits me really hard. It makes me wonder if I
bear some of the blame for my son's abandoning the faith.
Maybe I didn't do enough to instill in him the basis for why
we believe that God is real. And that Jesus is who he said he is.
Maybe I didn't train my son enough in the essentials. In a
recent episode of I don't have enough faith to be an atheist,
an episode called Are you defending the faith or your
faith, Frank was saying that some pastors, ministers and
priests have rejected some of the essentials, and still refer
to themselves as Christians. And he said that when you reject the
essentials, you cannot honestly still be a Christian. And I
agree with that completely. So I'm not going to make this show
and apologetic show. The reason you listen to the Lifespring!,
One Year Bible is to hear or read through the Bible. And that
will always be the main thrust of this show. But I think that
this new segment of the show is a perfect complement to the
reading of the word. Each Wednesday going forward, I'm
going to talk about one of the essentials, one of the linchpins
of what it is to be a Christian. Because over the centuries,
there have been certain things that Christians have believed
based on what the Scriptures teach. As an example, there's
one God. Another example is that Jesus was crucified, he died and
was raised back to life on the third day. We'll talk about
these things in many more in this essentials segment. I want
you to know what we believe and why we believe them. I want you
to be able to discern what is Christian and what is not when
you hear it, I don't want you to be one of those who fall away,
beloved. Now, I chose Wednesday as essentials day, because the
show is usually fairly short on Wednesdays. Many of the psalms
are short, and I think we'll have time to do this. And by the
way, I would love to hear your comments on the discussions. Now
to get started, I'm just going to read for you what is known as
the Apostles Creed. It's a summary of Christian beliefs or
doctrine. The Apostles Creed in itself is not found in the
Bible, and it was not written by the apostles. It was written
about 150 years after all the apostles had died. But it's
called the Apostles Creed because it distills what they
taught in the scriptures. Today, I'm gonna read through the
apostles creed, with only a tiny bit of necessary commentary for
clarity. And we'll talk more about it next Wednesday. So now,
without further ado, this is the Apostles Creed. I believe in
God, the Father Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, and
in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived of
the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He
descended into hell. There'll be commentary about that later,
continuing. The third day he rose again from the dead, He
ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the
Father almighty, whence he will come to judge the living in the
dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic
church, more commentary on that in a minute, the communion of
saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen. Okay, commentary. Let's talk
about the phrase, the holy catholic church. That's not the
capital C Catholic. It's not the Roman Catholic Church that
exists today. The word catholic, lowercase c means universal. It
refers to all the believers who have placed their faith in Jesus
for salvation. This statement is saying that believers worldwide
make up the church. That's what it's saying. Also the line that
says that Jesus descended into hell need some explanation, and
we'll talk about that next week. And then following that, we'll
talk about the communion of saints. Now listen, I hope to
make this a valuable, interesting and faith building
part of the show for you and please do let me know how you
feel about it or what do you think? I really do believe
though that going over what the essentials of the faith are is a
very important thing for all of us.
Praises and prayer requests. This praise comes in from Scott
Snider, you might remember that he had a prayer request a few
weeks ago for his wife Diana, and Scott says, we went to her
follow up colonoscopy and praise the Lord. The results were
excellent. Praise be to God and blessings to the Lifespring
family for the prayers. Praise the Lord. I'm so Happy to hear
that, Scott! Hallelujah. And another appraisal report is for
Connor, who we prayed for about three weeks ago. He's the Down
Syndrome boy who's the son of friends of Leanna and I, Randy
and Lori. He was hospitalized in under an induced coma, and he's
been in the ICU for three weeks so far. Listen to this report
from his mom, Lori. She said it's been exactly three weeks.
Wow. 21 days in the ICU so far. Tomorrow morning, Randy will be
with Connor for a couple of days as they head back to work and
home for a couple of days. It was hard to leave Connor today.
But believe it or not, he was all smiles. Today on rounds.
They started using the term discharge plans. What Wow, she
says there are more goals he needs to reach and sleeping is
one of them. He's gone three nights so far without sleeping
for more than 20 minutes at a time, twice during the night. We
are praying that sleep descends upon Him tonight. The wound team
thinks that his pressure wound is actually beginning to show
signs of healing. He needs to get to a point that the sore
will be manageable for the caring and very capable staff at
Crystal Springs, which is where he lives now since they can't
care for him at home because of his needs. And Laurie says
Please continue to pray for complete healing in this area is
well. Connor still has a strong congested cough, but he hasn't
required oxygen in three days as well. All signs that healing is
coming. And then she closed with continued prayers for better
days ahead with three exclamation points. So yes, God
is good. And then let's continue to pray for Bryan Duncan's wife
Cassie, she has an intensely painful nerve problem on the
side of her face from a nerve in her jaw. And she badly does need
surgery but they've got no medical insurance and the
medications she has to take have some really terrible side
effects so she needs a miracle. Also, my dear friends Del and
Kathi continue to need prayer. As I've told you, they live in
the Lake Arrowhead area about an hour from me in the mountains.
Well, they've had an ordinate amount of snow in those
mountains and the roads have been closed for many, many days
now. They can't leave their home and she's out of her cancer
medications. And even if they could leave their home, the
pharmacy hasn't been able to get shipments because of the closed
roads. They do have food but she needs her meds and she has to be
able to get back to the city of hope for her cancer treatments.
So let's pray. Our heavenly Father as the psalmist wrote in
our reading today, how awe inspiring are your deeds, your
power is so great that your enemies will cringe in front of
you. The whole earth will worship you. It will make music
to praise you. It will make music to praise your name. Lord,
You are worthy of our praise and adoration which we offer to you
now. Father, we thank you for the good news about Scott's wife
Diana. Thank you that the follow up showed no signs of cancer and
we pray that you would continue to keep both her and Scott in
health. And it's so good to hear that Connor is recovering and
gaining strength Lord, Randy and Lori love him so very much and I
pray that Connor would be able to leave the hospital soon and
that there would be no complications. We pray now for
Cassie, give her a miracle Lord so that she can get the surgery
that she so badly needs or better yet, I pray that you
would touch her body and bring healing to this nerve. And we
lift up Del and Kathi father, Kathi needs to be able to get
her cancer meds and get down the hill the City of Hope. We pray
that the snow removal crews would quickly make their way to
their home. We thank you for the snow. We need the water here in
California but I pray that you would make a way for them to get
what is necessary. Another storm is predicted to come in Friday,
but we pray that it doesn't bring more delays. And now
Father I pray for the Lifespring family. Bless them Lord, You are
our provider, our shelter, our rock, our healer, our shield our
strength, meet the needs of the Lifespring family, whatever they
are, whether they be financial, emotional, physical, draw each
of us closer to you, Lord, grow our faith. Make us more like
you. Help us to walk with you every day. I pray this in Jesus
name. Amen. Beloved, our next time of prayer together here on
the show will be Sunday. If there's a praise we should know
about or if there's something you'd like us to pray with you
about. Tell me about it on the Lifespring family Hotline at
plus 1-951-732-8511 Or go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com. And
please continue to pray for Cassie and Bryan and Del and
Kathi.
Our show today is from Jason Paschall. Thank you, Jason. God
bless you. And Thanks to Sister Denise Michael Haner, Scott
Snider and Brittaney they're the team and they do so much to help
me go I bless you guys. And now until tomorrow, thank you for
inviting me to be part of your day. May God bless you richly.
My name is Steve Webb, fine Lifespring media, bringing the
message of hope, love and good news since 2004